World’s first baby born with an assist from stem cells

08.05.2015

Doctors in Canada have begun a new chapter in medical history, delivering the first in a wave of babies expected to be born this summer through a technique that some experts think can dramatically improve the success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Zain Rajani, who is now 22 days old, was born through a new method that relies on the discovery that women have, in their own ovaries, a possible solution to infertility caused by poor egg quality. Pristine stem cells of healthy, yet-to-be developed eggs that can help make a woman’s older eggs act young again. Unlike other kinds of stem cells, which have the ability to develop into any kind of cell in the body, including cancerous ones, these precursor cells can only form eggs.

In May 2014, Zain’s mother, Natasha Rajani, now 34, had a small sliver of her ovarian tissue removed in a quick laproscopic procedure at First Steps Fertility in Toronto, Canada, where she lives. Scientists from OvaScience, the fertility company that is providing Augment, then identified and removed the egg stem cells and purified them to extract their mitochondria.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, a molecular battery that energizes everything a cell does. Adding the mitochondria from these egg precursor cells to Natasha’s poor-quality eggs and her husband Omar’s sperm dramatically improved their IVF results. In the Rajanis’ first traditional-IVF attempt, Natasha produced 15 eggs, but only four were fertilized—just one of those matured to the point were Natasha’s doctor felt comfortable transferring it.

With Augment, the Rajanis produced four embryos, two of which have been frozen should the couple decide to have more children. Another one became baby Zain.

It’s not currently available in the U.S., since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers the process of introducing mitochondria a form of gene therapy, which it regulates. So far, some three dozen women in four countries have tried the technique, and eight are currently pregnant. All of the women have had at least one unsuccessful cycle of IVF; some have had as many as seven.

The Rajanis had tried for four years to get pregnant, turning to fertility drugs, intrauterine insemination, and a naturopath before trying their first attempt at IVF. Natasha became pregnant once, but miscarried a few weeks later.

With Augment, the cells used—and their mitochondrial genes—are from the mother’s own ovaries. Still, the FDA requested more studies on the effect of adding mitochondria, even from the mother who provides the egg, to the IVF process. OvaScience plans to conduct 1000 cycles using Augment this year, and generate more data that will help bring the procedure to the U.S.

Because the procedure is so new, some reproductive science experts are skeptical. What’s lacking, they say, is convincing evidence comparing pregnancy rates of women undergoing Augment to those with similar infertility problems who didn’t use the technique. So far, no formal clinical trials have been conducted; the only data on the procedure comes from recent presentations by Dr. Robert Casper of University of Toronto and Dr. Kutluk Oktay from Gen-ART IVF in Ankara, Turkey, both of whom are advisors to OvaScience.

“We’re not yet sure the scientific model has proven what the outcomes would be if you use the mitochondria of a younger egg, or from an egg stem cell,” says Davis of ASRM. “It’s a fascinating concept but we just haven’t seen the studies yet.”

In the world of infertility, however, such data are historically hard to come by. A lack of regulation of most reproductive technologies—the ones that don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the FDA as either drugs, devices or gene therapy—and the dominance of business-minded scientists has rushed new methods to clinics, often before their effectiveness has been fully proven.

Source: time.com